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MOSCOW – After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has opened its doors to thousands of Muslim tourists, luring them with halal restaurants and Muslim-friendly resorts in a bid to cap into the growing industry of halal tourism.
“Due to the fall in the number of visitors from the EU and the US, the Russian tourist industry has started paying greater attention to people coming from Muslim nations,” Samat Sadykov, from the Halal International Centre for Standardisation and Certification in Moscow, told Agence France Presse (AFP) on Monday, October 20.
“Creating the right conditions for them to have a comfortable stay here has become all the more important,” he said. “Halal services are now in high demand.”
Tapping into the thriving halal tourism, several Moscow hotels have been scrambling to woo Muslim visitors by making some necessary modifications to accommodate them.
One of Moscow hotels started to ban bacon meals, offering Qur’an on the tables and installing prayer rooms.
“Around 70 per cent of our guests are from overseas and 13 per cent of these — or some 5,000 people — come from Muslim countries, especially Iran,” said Lyubov Shiyan, marketing director at the Aerostar hotel.
“Our Muslim visitors were constantly asking for a separate prayer room or a special menu,” she said.
“We wanted everyone who came here to feel at home.”
Going through strict procedure, the hotel was successfully certified by Muslim officials to start its halal services this month.
Islam is Russia’s second-largest religion representing roughly 15 percent of its 145 million predominantly Orthodox population.
The Russian Federation is home to some 23 million Muslims in the north of the Caucasus and southern republics of Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan.
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The void in the Russian tourism, made by drop in the number of European and American visitors, was filled by an increasing number of tourists from Muslim countries in the Mideast and Asia.
“We equipped 20 rooms out of the 308 in the hotel with a prayer mat, a basin for ritual washing and a small compass that indicates the direction of Makkah,” said Shiyan, the official from Aerostar hotel.
“If we now add in the number of tourists and businessmen coming to Russia from the Middle East, Turkey or Iran then we’re talking about a truly enormous number of potential customers,” said Sadykov.
Muslim travelers globally are expected to reach $200 billion by 2020, or 13.5 percent of the global total, up from $140 billion in 2013.
A recent study, conducted in 47 countries, found that spending by Muslim tourists is growing faster than the global rate and is forecast to reach $192 billion a year by 2020, up from $126 billion in 2011.
Modifying accommodation, one of the Russian hotels was equipped with “20 rooms out of the 308 in the hotel with a prayer mat, a basin for ritual washing and a small compass that indicates the direction of Mecca,” said Shiyan.
“Even the shampoo and soap in the rooms have been certified as halal and do not contain any animal fats or alcohol,” she added.
“You won’t find any pork or ham here,” chef Vitaly Ukhanov, standing in his small bright kitchen, with a sign with the word “halal” written inside a green star hung up on the wall.
“All the crockery is new and has never been used in the main kitchen,” added the cook.
The concept of halal, — meaning permissible in Arabic — has traditionally been applied to food.
Muslims should only eat meat from livestock slaughtered by a sharp knife from their necks, and the name of Allah, the Arabic word for God, must be mentioned.
Now other goods and services can also be certified as halal, including cosmetics, clothing, pharmaceuticals and financial services.
Muslim travelers globally are expected to reach $200 billion by 2020, or 13.5 percent of the global total, up from $140 billion in 2013.
A recent study, conducted in 47 countries, found that spending by Muslim tourists is growing faster than the global rate and is forecast to reach $192 billion a year by 2020, up from $126 billion in 2011.
